Dell Pro 14 Plus monitor review: A little efficient monitor for the roaming worker

Having refreshed its laptop lineup of Pro and Premium models, Dell has done the same with its monitors. The Dell Pro 14 Plus (P14250) is the company's latest portable monitor, and it packs quite a punch.

Now this isn't a portable monitor in the vein of the Asus ZenScreen Duo – it's not as functional or as expensive as that. It also isn't a monitor you should get if you work solely at a desk. It's far too tiny. But, if you work in random places, like trains, coffee shops, or airport waiting areas, then this might be the portable monitor for you.

Dell Pro 14 Plus monitor: Design

The Pro 14 Plus has a 14in WUXGA IPS display, with up to 60Hz refresh rate. You get an antiglare panel with a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution at a 16:10 aspect ratio that's taller than the 16:9 you find on most widescreen monitors. This is all pleasingly incorporated into a slim and light chassis (4.60 mm and 0.56kg) with very narrow bezels. The whole device is so light you barely notice it in a rucksack along with a laptop.

It comes with a small, square stand that folds up and offers a 10-to-90-degree tilt. The stand features four physical – yes you heard us – physical buttons for brightness, screen lock, and power on. It's a total throwback and we love it. There are also two USB Type-C slots on either side with an L-shaped cable connector in the box. The connector is great; it keeps the cable from jutting out in the wrong direction and fits it smoothly around the back of your laptop.

Only having USB Type-C slots is limiting – we do love HDMI over here at ITPro – but both support DisplayPort and provide up to 65Wh of power delivery. The benefit of not having other slots is that the whole thing is nice and neat and svelte.

Now, the reason you have those physical buttons is because there is no screen menu. This would be fine if you used a Dell or other compatible laptop, but if you have, say, a MacBook, you are hampered by the macOS display settings (more on that later).

Dell Pro 14 Plus monitor: Image quality

For a portable monitor, the Dell Pro 14 Plus packs a surprising punch of color. It covers the full sRGB color space; with our colorimeter and DisplayCal is showcased 96.4% for gamut color coverage (98% for volume). Portable monitors, particularly those that are of this price level, rarely peak above 95% sRGB, so there is real value for money here.

While its size does lend itself to image editing, its Adobe RGB was 65.2% which is a little too low to make this a serious work monitor for a professional. Though we recorded its peak brightness at 486.75 cd/m2 which is very good – higher than the 400 cd/m2 that the Asus ZenScreen Duo achieved.

The screen is set to 960 x 600 by default, which is too chunky and odd. If you need to see more of your screen, a window, or another app, then you can change it. However, your choices are limited and also problematic. There's 1920 x 1080, which does show the whole screen, but it makes the font simply too small. You literally need a magnifying glass. Then there is 1920 x 1200 which is pretty much the same. The one that is big enough to read is 1024 x 640 but that's just silly; it looks like the biggest font setting on your phone.

And then we move on to a compatibility issue; the monitor can work in portrait mode simply by turning the device on its side. There are no extra clicks or fiddling through settings to make it work. However, with a MacBook Pro, the extra display only works as a small window. There's wasted space above and below and no way to make it fit the whole screen. On the Dell website, it shows the whole screen being taken up by the portrait mode, so we assume this is just a compatibility issue with macOS.

Dell Pro 14 Plus monitor: Is it worth it?

The first thing to say is that this is not an everyday display. You'd get really annoyed if you had to use this tiny screen for more than a couple of hours. But it is a fantastic backup for when you're on the move; light, simplistic, and generally of a high quality. It does what it is supposed to do, really well.

And, importantly, it's oh so cheap. Just $289.99 (£262.80). It would be an absolute bargain if there was more reason to use such a tiny monitor. But if you have a Dell laptop, a reason to need an extra screen on the go, there is few better than the Dell Pro 14 Plus monitor.

Dell Pro 14 Plus monitor specifications